PartyGaming has appointed Mitchell Garber as it's new chief executive officer in effect from April 19, 2006 to fill in the vacancy created by the resignation of Richard Segal a couple of weeks ago. Mitchell Garber is a qualified attorney and former CEO of the FireOne group (FirePay), a payment processor focusing almost exclusively on the online gambling market.
Garber will move from Montreal to Gibraltar where Partygaming's head office is located. The former CEO Richard Segal had declined to relocate to Gibraltar for family reasons, leading to his resignation.
Garber is a qualified attorney and has worked for the law firm Lazarus, Charbonneau specializing in gaming law. In 2002 Garber became chief executive of the payment processor SureFire, now part of the Optimal Group and listed on the London Stock Exchange as the FireOne Group since June 2, 2005.
The FireOne Group is best known for it's online wallet service FirePay. Firepay is a service that is comparable with Neteller. It is accepted at over 1,500 gambling websites worldwide and has processed in excess of U.S. $3 billion for over 2.5 million consumers since it's inception back in 1997.
Garber will receive a compensation package worth approximately $17 million constituted of a $1 million a year salary and 7 million share options (worth $15.6 million).
According to a PartyGaming spokesman the former CEO Richard Segal "has established PartyGaming as the world leader in online gaming and as a FTSE 100 company." Mr. Garner now has to consolidate PartyGaming's leading position in existing markets and to ensure continued growth outside the U.S. particularly in Europe and Asia.